


Crimson Gust

by dmsgkysh



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, F/M, First Love, Genderbending, One-Sided Attraction, Romance, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 7,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22647595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dmsgkysh/pseuds/dmsgkysh
Summary: When autumn dyes the leaves bright red, Shu encounters a love that she hopes would last longer than a  fading breeze.
Relationships: Itsuki Shuu/Kiryuu Kurou
Kudos: 20





	1. Confession

**Author's Note:**

> *Most chapters might be very short -- similar to a drabble, but some might turn out to be a little longer. Also, though this is a Kuro X Shu fic, the story will mainly revolve around Shu (gender-swapped) and her feelings for Kuro. :)  
> *Other characters might be gender-swapped as well, while others might not be.  
> *This story does not take place in a specific country or setting, but you can think of the school system as similar to American (definitely not Japanese).

“I am in love with you.”

She stares into his green eyes. She knows those eyes so well. Such beautiful and pure emerald orbs, contrasting to his fierce countenance. She has loved them so dearly in the few years she became to know him, no matter what season came and went. No matter how thin their ties had become.

That’s why she has always been sure—the fear and longing that now lies plainly in front of her should never be there. They are hers.

They were hers, solely hers.

Weakly, his gaze escapes hers and falls to his lap. Her heart throbs. She takes a deep breath, realizing that it sounds shaky. Her throat aches as she reaches out to his clenched fist. Deepened feelings are about to flow above the rim.

“I love you,” the hoarse whisper continues, “I love you.”

The gust of autumn wind subsides.


	2. Alarm

Shu is already aware of his existence since before they even properly meet.

Since the day she enters high school, there is a strange rumor circling amongst her classmates. It is about a certain teacher with the face of a thug—or a monster, according to other witnesses. Supposedly, he hissed and glowered at a group of freshmen to death, simply because they were having a little chat during the opening ceremony.

Instinctively, Shu assumes they are talking about the Dean of Students, but ironically, it turns out that he is just a teacher of English literature. She discovers that fact through her elder brother, who always complains that his English literature assignments are too tedious. He also grumbles that he wants to bolt whenever he meets eyes with the teacher.

“I’m not kidding, Shu; he literally looks like he wants to murder someone. I bet nobody would believe that he is a teacher—of literature, all the more—when he goes out to the streets!”

She has no choice but to agree when she receives the yearbook at the end of the year and swiftly scans over the teacher’s appearance in the photograph. Such brilliant red hair and ferocious eyes. Even though the photograph is quite small, she can still tell that a deep frown is etched on his face.

Everybody is scared of him. Do not get near him. Do not meet his eyes. Do not make him angry. That is all they scream, and all she listens to.


	3. Unlucky

Junior year is turning out to be great.

Unfortunately, Shu is the only one out of her friends to be placed in the “thug” teacher’s literature class; all the others are placed in the literature class of another teacher, Keito Hasumi. Disconcerted, she visits the counselor numerous times to change her schedule, but only receives a ridiculous reply that it is impossible due to time conflicts.

The first day of literature class, one of her best friends, Rei, accompanies her to the classroom. They walk through the crowded corridor and arrive at the corresponding place, but Shu hesitates to enter. She doesn’t want to go in just yet, submerge herself into that room full of “familiar strangers.”

As someone who suffered from constant bullying during her childhood, Shu detests being alone, especially in classes. Sadly, this happens often because she only has a few, very close friends.

It is not as if the solitude makes her uncomfortable. Actually, she prefers studying and doing assignments individually; on the contrary, she dislikes group work because—besides the fact that people rely on her too much due to her reputation as a top student—the trivial process of forming groups stresses her out. Whenever she is left by herself, she cannot stand the pitiful or condescending looks from others. Back then, she would always burst out crying, but now, she grits her teeth and tells herself: _This is simply because my friends are not here. No other reason._

“Don’t worry, Itsuki,” Rei consoles, noticing Shu’s tight expression. Smiling leisurely, she pats the pink-haired on the shoulder. “I’ve talked with him a few times, and he’s not really like what the rumors say.”

Though that matter is only a small part of her current concerns, Shu does not correct her friend out of embarrassment.

“I hope so.” She clears her throat. “More importantly, I heard that you’re in the same math class as Nito.”

“Oh, Nito?” Rei snickers as Shu puffs her cheeks in distaste. “Yes. I’m guessing Hibiki told you.”

“That’s really unfair!” Shu cries, shaking her fists, “During the past three years, I have _never_ once had a class with my cute and lovely Nito, while all of you have had hundreds! How can this be?! Someone must be behind this! It might be that vile daughter of the director!”

“Calm down. I don’t think Tenshouin would go to that extent.”

“How can you be sure, Rei?! That witch is dangerous.”

“Anyway, you don’t even need to have a class with Nito, right? You chase her around almost every day—"

“Oh, Sakuma, long time no see.”

A deep voice interrupts their conversation. Shu turns around to see that a tall man in a suit with blue necktie is standing by the classroom doorway. For sure, this must be her teacher for English literature, Kuro Kiryu. As everyone warned, she is caught off guard by his appearance, but not because of how intimidating it is.

She has never seen a teacher so young.

Even though she already saw him a few times in the yearbooks, she didn’t pay much attention to the section for teachers, and in any case, the photographs were too small for her to get a well-defined image of him. Since most teachers in the school are around late thirties and beyond, she automatically imagined him in a similar fashion.

Nonetheless, the man in front of her seems to be at most in his late twenties. His hairstyle has changed from the photograph as well, for his bangs are no longer drooping messily over his forehead, but neatly combed back with wax. She might not have recognized him if not for the unique crimson hair with black streaks.

“Good morning, Mr. Kiryu,” Rei greets politely while Shu cautiously analyzes the teacher.

“What a great timing. I was gonna ask you—there’s a student in my sophomore homeroom class who resembles you a lot. His name is Ritsu. Is he related to you?”

“YES, of course!” Rei’s ruby orbs immediately sparkle with adoration. “He’s my lovely little brother! Please, take good care of him!”

“I see.” Kuro frowns slightly, shaking the green water bottle in his hand. “Then I wonder why he told me he doesn’t have any siblings…”

“Gah, h—he said that?!” Rei exclaims, her face crumpling. She lowers her head into her hands. “Ohh, Ritsu, why are you so mean to your sister?!”

As Rei laments on her own, the teacher’s gaze momentarily lands on Shu. Looking back, the girl can understand why her brother was so afraid of him. Despite how casually he just chatted with Rei, his emerald eyes gleam like those of a lurking dragon; there is no single trace of kindness in his sharp features.

If only she could bolt.


	4. Futile

Perhaps, due to the exaggerated rumors that have spread around the school, Shu can tell that Kuro actually puts a lot of effort to reduce his distance with the students.

As soon as the bell rings for class, he stands by the doorway with a coffee tumbler or water bottle in hand and greets each student that comes into the room. From the others’ perspective, however, it appears as though he were there to maintain order in the hallway. Thanks to that, all the students that walk past his classroom abruptly seal their lips, slow down their steps, and throw anxious glances at him.

During the class, he throws a few jokes, eliciting nervous laughter or puzzled stares. After leaving classwork, he saunters around the room and often strikes up a friendly conversation with the students. Well, he tries, at least. Most conversations do not last long because everyone tenses up when he approaches them.

As for Shu, who has seen through his motives, she pities him somewhat. That doesn’t mean she would like to have him talk to her, though.

Shu has a habit of listening to music while doing any kind of work because that blocks all the nonsensical chatters and lets her concentrate. Nonetheless, she is forced to take off her earphones when Kuro suddenly talks to her one day.

She is in the middle of brainstorming on a piece of paper when a large hand appears in her vision. Surprised, she looks up to find Kuro, pointing at her work. He mutters something, but she cannot hear him, so she reluctantly takes off her earphones.

“You got an amazing handwriting.”

Shu almost narrows her eyes. She is annoyed by the trifling reason behind the interruption, but a compliment is still a compliment.

“Thank you,” she replies dryly.

“You’ve probably noticed by now—” Kuro gestures at the whiteboard, “—but my handwriting is really bad, so I always feel envious when I meet people with nice handwriting.”

“Oh.”

He flashes a small grin. Not knowing what else to add, Shu gives him an awkward nod. To her relief, he steps away instead of continuing the conversation. Shu sighs and plugs the earphones back to her ears.

Even though she doesn’t want him to put her on the same level as all the fools who are afraid of him, she wants to return to work.


	5. Eyes

Another dreary day follows. The sky is teeming with gray clouds, and the red autumn leaves flutter pitifully in the chilly wind. The weather forecast predicted rain, but quite tauntingly, no drops have fallen over the entire morning.

Shu’s mood mirrors the dismal weather. Even though a paper and pencil are placed in front of her, her amethyst orbs are fixed on the leaves outside the window.

Before coming to school, she had a small quarrel with her parents over her hobby. Shu adores and excels at sewing. Back in elementary school, she was bullied by her classmates, so she had no one to play or talk with during lunch. Consequently, she searched for activities she could do by herself, and what first came to her mind was sewing.

Every day, she would sit by herself on a bench in the quiet corridor, and sew everything she wished to. This went on to middle school, but that is where she found her current friends. One of them, Wataru, took interest in her hobby and approached her. They began to talk, and Wataru introduced her to Rei, Kanata, and Natsume. One cannot imagine the happiness she felt when she realized she had found true friends who would appreciate her for who she is.

Sewing is not only her hobby, but also the link that tied her to precious people.

However, her parents have never been fond of it; they merely consider it a petty distraction from her studies. This morning, when they noticed that she was still carrying around her sewing kit in her bag, they began scolding her that it is time for her to “grow out” of child’s play, especially since this is one of the most important periods that may determine her future.

Fuming, Shu scowls at the gray clouds. For heaven’s sake, it’s not as if she sewed all day long. Moreover, hasn’t her long reputation as a top student been of enough proof that she has been handling herself flawlessly? The fact that she is yet to earn their trust wounds her pride.

Well, her parents have never been that caring anyway. Shu still recalls how she would beg them to come to school events, but they rejected every single invitation due to work. She hated staying alone at school without nothing to do until the last period, while all of her classmates returned home early with their parents after the events. But her parents didn’t ask questions or try to understand her feelings; instead, they always forced _her_ to understand their busy schedule.

They don’t even know about all the mockeries that she had to endure during her childhood. She didn’t bother to tell them.

Heaving a bitter sigh, Shu shakes her head and decides to concentrate on the given work. Spinning the pen between her lean fingers, she rereads the essay prompt on the handout. The theme is freedom. This is the first essay assignment, so she must complete it as thoughtfully and creatively as possible; for a literature class, this might determine her first impression.

Despite such resoluteness, nothing brilliant comes to her gloomy mind. All she can do is doodle meaningless circles on the brainstorming page while racking her brain. She bites down on her lower lip in frustration. Perhaps, she should just give up for now and get back to it at home; the due date is several days away.

“What are you gonna write about?”

Shu stiffens. Kuro is beside her desk again, gazing down at her with curiosity. Embarrassed by her empty paper, she awkwardly covers the doodles with her arm.

“I’m not sure yet,” she mutters half-heartedly, “I’m still thinking.”

She meant to chase him away with the vacant answer. As he starts to move, she expects him to encourage her and leave.

Nonetheless, he walks to the front of her desk and crouches down, staring straight up into her eyes.

Radiant green. Even though she has always known that his eyes are of such color, it feels as though she were seeing them for the first time. Is it because his face is unusually close?

She can’t look away.

“What is something that could make your life much better if it did not exist?”

His voice is hushed, for he doesn’t want to interrupt the other students’ work. At his question, several things automatically flash past her head, but they seem too trivial to include in a strong essay.

Suddenly, Kuro chuckles.

“Now, I saw those eyes flicker. I know you thought of something.”

The girl blinks. Her cheeks grow warm with disconcertment. How did he catch that?

After suggesting her to list everything and anything she can think of, Kuro finally walks away. Although she rarely listens to others’ advice, Shu finds herself scribbling down a list on the paper. Half of her attention wanders somewhere else.

His emerald orbs.


	6. Near

“Good morning.”

He smiles, waving his hand. Today, he is holding a coffee tumbler. Cautiously, Shu looks up and meets her teacher’s cheerful gaze.

“…Good morning.”

Biting down on her lower lip, Shu skitters to her seat. For some reason, since the day she found herself accidentally captivated by Kuro’s green eyes, she cannot stay relaxed around him.

She knows well enough that what he did was rare for a high school teacher, but far from special. As usual, he was just trying his best to be friendly with his students. Nothing has changed; Kuro is still the infamous “thug” teacher, and she is one of his many pupils.

So why is she so unsettled? Is she also becoming afraid of him like the others?

While Shu is unable to resolve her confusion, the class has begun. Kuro announces that today is somewhat “special.”

“There’s gonna be a fire drill around noon, which is actually in 10 minutes. So we’re not really gonna do any work until then.” He smirks, looking around the room as the students exchange secret glances. “Yeah, all of you are obviously excited. Anyway, I know this is a drill, but I take drills seriously.”

As he goes on to explaining how everyone should behave properly, Shu grumbles inwardly. In drills, all students and faculty members must head to the lower field of the campus and wait until they are given the permission to get back inside. The wait takes a while, however; without anyone to talk to, there is really nothing she can do except look at her phone, so she dislikes having drills without her friends.

“The point is—” Kuro ends his speech with an emphasis, “—stay _beside_ me, all right?”

He goes to his desk. Whereas the students fall into a low chatter, Shu sighs and takes the phone out of her coat pocket, preparing for the upcoming boredom.

A few moments later, the drill goes off. Kuro heads to the door first and gestures at the students to follow his lead. Shu tenses when she notices that the hallway is already packed, but fixes her gaze on his back as he begins his way to the lower field. To her relief, he is easy to spot even amongst the swarming people, thanks to his unique hairstyle and towering height.

Despite Kuro’s previous instructions, the crowd has forced most of his students, including Shu, to scatter. Shu tiptoes and struggles to find him as she enters the lower field with other strangers. Then, she sees him, waving a folded red paper high in the air beside a few of her classmates. As she arrives beside him, he grins with satisfaction.

“I think we’re gonna make it, Itsuki.”

He looks at her, and then at the entrance of the field. She follows his gaze to see her remaining classmates, walking toward them. She nods wordlessly.

Abruptly, she feels somebody’s touch on the back of her head. Surprised, she blinks and wheels around.

“Sorry,” Kuro apologizes with a gentle smile, “There was something on your hair.”

“Oh.” Shu swiftly pats her hair.

“I got it for you.”

Her eyes dart away from him. Although she is not particularly happy with anyone touching her perfectly combed hair out of nowhere, her chest is floating like bubbles. She opens her lips.

“Th—”

“What are those guys doing?” Kuro squints his eyes, and the prior kindness disappears altogether from his face. Scowling, he strides toward a group of students, where two freshmen are seemingly fighting. As soon as people see him approach, they pale with fear and let him pass.

Shu watches him stop the fight with ease, fidgeting with her fingers in regret. Regret for what, she has no clue.

It is while she follows him back to class that she realizes that he has called her name for the first time.


	7. Mentor

Shu gazes at the computer screen, fidgeting with her fingers above the keyboard.

She is in the middle of filling out an electronic form for the Writing Club, which she has been part of since she entered high school. During freshmen year, she decided to join clubs that were both academically beneficial and fitting for her refined tastes, and this club was one of them.

The main reason was that she wished to strengthen her writing skills. In middle school, one of the teachers she had for English would always give her harsh scores and feedback on her writing assignments. Since Shu was confident that her writing skills could not be so terrible, she suppressed her annoyance and visited the teacher countless times to learn how to correct her writing. Nonetheless, her effort was futile; no matter how much she tried to write in the way the teacher told her to, all she kept getting back was a pile of criticism.

Although such unfortunate event hasn’t happened again, Shu wants to keep improving her writing, so she still remains as a member of the club.

A few days ago, Hokuto, the new president of the club, held a general meeting after school, where he announced that there would be a year-long project that has been approved by the faculty. It consisted of each member writing a story or essay and gathering them together to present them on an official website for the club. Also, those who wished could submit their work to a national writing contest, which would be held next spring.

“I know that all of you are busy with your own studies, and some of you might be worried about how to go about this project,” Hokuto said, looking at each member in the eye, “That’s why we’ll be giving you a lot of freedom on the topic and length of the work, which we’ll let you know in more detail next time. Also, we’ll be offering you a system where you can pick any teacher as a mentor that will guide you through this project. They've all been notified, so they shouldn’t be surprised when we send them a mail about this. Of course, choosing not to have a mentor is possible as well. It’s up to you.”

Shu frowns at the question on the form: _“Whom do you want to request as your mentor? Please, write the teacher’s full name.”_ The answering space is still empty.

She doesn’t understand why she has been hesitating for ten minutes; since the moment she heard about this in the meeting, only one person crossed her mind.

Well, there is nothing odd about that, right? He _is_ one of her current teachers, after all, and to be honest, she cannot think of a better choice. She didn’t really enjoy any of the English Literature or Language classes that she took over the past years.

Ignoring the unreasonable trembling of her fingertips, she types his name and completes the form. Before submitting it, she skims through the answers once more. Her eyes pause on his name.

_Kuro Kiryu._

After staring at it for a longer time than necessary, she moves the cursor.

The next morning, Shu is the first to arrive at Kuro’s classroom after the bell, but he is not at the doorway. He is still standing by his desk, arranging some documents. Realizing she was too early to receive his everyday greeting, Shu finds herself disappointed.

She heads to her seat while throwing glances at him. Abruptly, he looks up and catches her. Her heart skips several beats. She tries to pretend that nothing happened, but he simply waves his hand, oblivious to her flustered state.

“Hey,” he says, grabbing onto his water bottle, “I got the mail last night.”

“Huh?” Shu blinks.

“About the mentor for the project.”

“Oh.”

Her cheeks grow rosy with embarrassment. She didn't know the mail would be sent out so soon. Kuro beams as he heads toward the door.

“The topic of your work seemed interesting. I look forward to helping you with it!”

Looking after his wide back, she clutches onto the straps of her bag. It is ridiculous that such meaningless exchange could make someone so happy.

But she is.


	8. Compliment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Ensemble Stars!! was released :DD I hope everyone's enjoying it!

Several days after the due date for the first essay assignment, Shu receives a mail from Kuro.

As soon as his name appears in her notifications on the phone screen, she stops everything she is doing and grabs the phone. It is an automatic mail that was sent through the school system, letting her know that he graded her essay and left feedback.

Relief settles on her chest as she reads through his positive comments. But this is only the beginning.

For each assignment he gives, she finds herself spending more time and thought on them than necessary. Unfortunately, even though the results may look more than enough for others, she never feels truly satisfied when handing them in.

Once, after assigning a trivial drawing project, Kuro asks the students to place their drawings on the desks and freely walk around the room to look at their classmates’ work. Shu, who is again disappointed by how her drawing turned out, is reluctant to do so; in the end, though, she hastily puts her drawing on the desk and rushes away to another seat as fast as possible. She doesn’t want to see her teacher’s reaction to her pathetic work.

While scanning the others’ drawings, she pauses in front of one that catches her eye. Unlike most, this one seems to illustrate the theme of the assignment in a fairly creative way. The name on the corner of the page reads _Izumi Sena_. Shu nods to herself in moderate approval; although they’ve only talked a few times, Shu has been fond of Izumi, who is quite strict on herself when it comes to academics. And this is despite that she is always busy because of her career as a model.

Suddenly, someone from the other side of the desk turns the drawing around. Shu looks up to meet his clear, green eyes.

“Oh, sorry,” Kuro apologizes, “Were you looking at it?”

“No,” Shu says, shaking her head, “G—go ahead.”

Her racing heartbeat does not slow down, even until Kuro tells the students to return to their seats. While she is taking in deep breaths, he announces that he has chosen two best drawings, just as he has done with his former students. Shu glances down at her paper and dislikes what she sees. Normally, she’d be confident that one of them would be hers, but not this time.

As she expected, Kuro walks toward Izumi’s desk and picks up her drawing. He pins it on the bulletin board at the front of the room. Izumi appears a little unsettled, but Shu agrees with his choice.

Then, betraying her assured prediction, Kuro comes in front of Shu and takes her drawing. She stares blankly at the teacher as he pins it next to Izumi’s. Grinning, he gestures at the two drawings.

“Everyone did well, but I found these two quite pretty.”

The last word causes Shu to lower her head and blush profusely. She is sure she has heard better compliments than that, but right now, she cannot remember any of them at all.

Throughout the class, the girl’s gaze keeps darting from him to her drawing on the bulletin board. She wants him to compliment her work again.

She wants him to consider her as a distinctive student by the time her junior year ends.


	9. Hello

The bell rings, and Shu heads to her next class with Wataru. Wataru is chatting enthusiastically as always, but Shu is only listening half-heartedly. As she carries her steps up the stairs to the second floor, she looks down in slight nervousness.

She doesn't have literature class today, so she hasn’t been able to see Kuro since the morning. However, she _does_ have another class on the second floor—where his classroom is as well—so this is her chance to steal a peek at her teacher as she passes by. Surely, he’d be standing by the doorway.

The moment she arrives at the second floor with Wataru, Shu raises her head to look at his classroom, located right across the stairs. Her heart squeezes in on itself when she spots him, leaned on the door, welcoming one of his students. The same coffee tumbler in one hand, the usual crease between his red eyebrows.

Fleetingly, she wishes this sight would never change.

Then, Kuro turns his gaze, and their eyes meet. Shu stiffens, her thoughts instantly jumbling in panic. Should she say hello? But she’s not going into his classroom right now, and they are a little too far apart. What if he doesn’t hear her? If she doesn’t say hello, though, what if he thinks she ignored him on purpose? What if he thinks of her as rude?

“Good afternoon, Mr. Kiryu! I hope you're having an _amazing_ day!”

Shu’s eyes widen at the loud voice. Wataru is waving at Kuro, who beams and waves back at the two girls. Shu swallows a breath as she looks once more at her kind teacher.

“Hi,” she mumbles, barely audible.

Continuing through the hallway with Wataru, Shu secretly clicks her tongue in annoyance. Why in the world does she lose her voice whenever she’s in front of him? It’s not as if saying hello to her teacher is something ridiculous, right? So why does she need to hesitate so much?

As she wallows silently in frustration, Wataru glances at her and chuckles mischievously.


	10. Fall

A sunny Friday, Shu visits Kuro during lunch break.

Her heart is already racing miles per hour as she approaches his classroom. Frowning, she tells herself over and over that there is no reason to overreact. As her mentor, he has to look over the list of research questions she came up with for the project essay. That is all.

His classroom door is nearly closed, but the light is on inside. Shu fidgets with her sleeves and peeks through the crack in the door. Luckily, her teacher is present, going through some papers by his desk. However, Shu cannot help but stop herself from entering and stare at Kuro’s tall figure.

Since it is a “casual Friday,” he is wearing a slightly oversized ivory shirt with wide sleeves, and black jeans. Without a suit that marks him as a teacher, he looks like just another young man she could come across on the streets.

Shu must admit—she’s always known that Kuro has an extremely handsome face. Of course, nobody else knows this because their poor sight is tainted by his intimidating aura. Which is quite fortunate, since she plans to keep the secret to herself.

Sadly, the passing time reminds her that it is not the time to gape at him. With much effort, Shu manages to tear her sparkling eyes away from him. She lets out a sigh and mentally prepares herself before opening the door.

Kuro looks up at the creaking sound. Their eyes meet, but only for a second before he returns his gaze to the papers in his hands. Abruptly feeling anxious, Shu quietly shuts the door behind her. Is this a bad time? Maybe she should have come tomorrow.

“How can I help you?”

“Huh?”

Shu looks blankly at her teacher. She was so nervous that she didn’t hear him well.

“How can I help you?” Kuro repeats, walking towards the back of the classroom with a few papers in his hand.

“I came for something about the club project…”

“What about it?”

She hides the tremors in her hands by gripping onto the straps of her backpack. It takes her a second to form a proper sentence in her head.

“I need you to look over my research questions.”

“All right,” Kuro replies light-heartedly, “Let’s take a look.”

While he goes for his coffee tumbler, Shu quickly takes out the question sheet from her backpack.

“Your topic was French literature, right?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“Why did you choose that?”

“I’ve been interested in French culture for a long time, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to analyze French literature as well.”

He smiles, making heat rush to her cheeks.

“That’s awesome. Do you speak French?”

“Yes, but not perfectly. I want to study abroad in France, though.”

“You should,” Kuro agrees with a nod, “I think it’s important to experience other countries.”

Perching himself on a desk, he begins reading through the list of research questions she wrote. She waits by his side, admiring his features in silence. He is much more charming from up close.

They discuss over the questions. Though their conversation is far from casual talk, Shu thoroughly enjoys this private moment with Kuro. Just them two, talking in this quiet classroom, looking into each other’s eyes. That is enough to brighten her entire day.

In the end, he recommends her to broaden some of the questions and scribbles several comments on the paper. As he leans over to write, she finally notices that he is wearing a necklace with a golden ring, similar to one for couples.

_Couples?_

Her mood, which was flying high above the clouds a second ago, instantly crashes down.

What an idiot. Why didn’t she ever give it a thought? She is simply a student who met him as a teacher this autumn. Obviously, there must be people who have known him for a much longer time. Friends, family, co-workers. A person whom he holds dear. It’s such a natural thing.

And yet, it hurts.

It hurts because she is in love with him.

“Here you go!”

Shu jumps and hides her face behind her long hair. She takes the paper from Kuro and mumbles weakly.

“Thank you.”

“No problem. If you have any questions, you can email me anytime.”

He beams kindly, and it hurts again. Hastily, she gathers her things and nearly flees from his classroom in mortification.


	11. Empty

Shu’s fervent worries about how to face him again turn out to be useless.

The first class after she knew about the necklace, Shu is surprised to find him absent from the doorway. Not only that, but even after the bell rings, Kuro does not appear. Instead, a substitute teacher comes in.

“Mr. Kiryu had some business to take care of, so he’s absent today,” the substitute announces.

All the students clearly brighten, and they fall into a low, excited chatter as the substitute explains the instructions that Kuro left for the day. Meanwhile, Shu stares blankly at her teacher’s empty desk, shoving down the ache in her chest.

It’s all right. It’s just one day. Perhaps, this is better; she has additional time to recover from the unpleasant discovery.

Nonetheless, her thoughts completely change when Kuro does not appear throughout the entire week.

“Unfortunately, his business has been extended,” the substitute teacher says, distributing the handouts Kuro left for the students, “But he said he’ll definitely be seeing you guys next week.”

The cheerful murmur around her turns to a faint echo as she reads the handout. Stiffly, she moves the mechanical pencil over the notebook page. She hears his voice in the trivial sentences. She feels his shadow, quietly gliding past the desks. She sees his smiling eyes, crinkling into half-moons.

 _Snap._ The pencil lead breaks.

She wants to see him. That is all.


	12. Birthday

Birthdays have always been special since she met her four irreplaceable friends—Rei, Kanata, Wataru, and Natsume. She still recalls the first surprise party they did for her in middle school. When the bell rang for lunch, her friends suddenly came up to her through the hallway with a large pink cake that they secretly baked together at Wataru’s house. In a loud voice, they sang her happy birthday and showered her with presents.

The commotion attracted a lot of onlookers, but Shu found herself far from embarrassed; instead, she was blissfully happy. While looking at the sincere smiles around her, she thanked whomever led these precious people into her life, and swore to treasure them.

The same feelings surge through her in the morning of her seventeenth birthday. As soon as she arrives at school, her friends receive her with warm embraces and flowing words of celebration. Thanks to their kindness, Shu manages to refresh herself from the dourness that has been pestering her for the past few days.

But the relief does not last long. When the time for literature class creeps closer, nervousness invades. Shu gnaws on her lower lip with a frown. Even though Kuro said he would definitely be present today, she is afraid of his possible absence.

She misses him.

Over the weekend, Shu took the time to sort out her feelings. Despite that she is in love with Kuro, she never once dared to think about being his lover. They are student and teacher, after all; the most she wishes to be is a student he can be proud of.

So why should it matter that he is in love with someone else?

“Hey.”

The pink of her hair colors her cheeks. Green eyes as exhilarating as the wind, Kuro grins, standing by the doorway—

This is all she wants. See him, talk to him, hear his voice.

That is enough.

“Hi,” she replies, suppressing the desire to laugh.

Her heart drums loudly as she nearly bounces into her seat. When the bell rings, Kuro begins with taking the attendance. His gaze sweeps over the classroom as he wordlessly goes down the list of students on the laptop screen. Then, he pauses.

“Itsuki.”

Shu blinks. “Yes?”

“It’s your birthday today,” Kuro says, glancing down at the birthday icon beside Shu’s name. He beams. “Happy birthday.”

Her lips quiver. Yes, this is _much_ more than enough.

“Thank you.”


	13. Needless

Lunch break. Students are rushing out of the school building, in a hurry to get as far away as possible from classrooms and bags filled with books. On the other hand, Shu is heading to her English literature classroom with large, hopeful strides. The place where she can see the one she’s been thinking about the entire day.

Of course, she does have a convincing academic excuse to visit Kuro. A group project about literary analysis has begun in his class. Shu was slightly worried that she might not be able to find a partner, but to her relief, Izumi approached her and suggested that they work together. Though the two girls are actually not that close, they have recently formed a strange, empathetic bond—similar to an unspoken alliance—because neither of them has close friends in Kuro’s class.

While working on the project after school, they ran into several questions that prevented them from making any progress. Izumi sighed as she leaned back on her chair and glowered at the laptop screen.

“That’s annoying. I think we’ll need clarification from him before we can move on,” she muttered, “Maybe we should send him a mail.”

“Right. I guess—”

Shu nodded in agreement, only to pause midway and clear her throat.

“Or…we could talk to him tomorrow during lunch break.”

“Huh?” Izumi frowned. “Why? I think sending a mail would be more convenient.”

“Be—because…” Shu focused her gaze on the keyboard, avoiding Izumi’s puzzled eyes. “If he doesn’t answer clearly enough, we might have to keep sending him mails. And we don’t know how fast he would respond to us.”

“…True. What a pain, though! I have a tennis club meeting during lunch tomorrow.”

Izumi grumbled. Ironically, she was not reluctant but looking forward to this club meeting because she might see Makoto, her most adored model colleague and clubmate.

“If you’re busy, I can go ask him,” Shu quickly said, adding a small lie, “My class before lunch ends right next to his room tomorrow.”

“Really?” Izumi hesitated. “I don’t want to leave everything to you, though. It’s being a bad teammate.”

Shu shook her head vigorously.

“It’s fine, Sena. I will go!”

“W—well, if you insist…” Izumi mumbled, startled by Shu’s enthusiastic amethyst orbs. “Thanks. I’ll leave it to you, Itsuki.”

So now Shu is there, suppressing the excited beam on her lips, one stride away from his classroom. However, her happiness fades in an instant when a boy darts past her and knocks on Kuro’s door first.

“Good afternoon, Chief!” he exclaims, throwing the door open.

“Oh, Tetsu. Good afternoon. What’s up?”

Shu is frozen a few feet in front of the door, watching Kuro and the boy chat joyfully. It takes her a few seconds to recover from the surprise and swiftly hide next to the doorway. Clicking her tongue, she presses her back to the wall in annoyance.

Great. Now she has to wait until that boy comes out, but what if he takes all lunch? Although she volunteered to come because she wanted to talk with Kuro, she does need to ask these questions because the project relies on them. Cautiously, Shu peeks inside the classroom. Perhaps, she should just ignore that boy and march inside—

But Kuro is laughing. He looks like he’s having so much fun talking with that student.

Shu lowers her gaze to the floor, abruptly swept by bitterness. If she walked in, Kuro would surely talk with her and answer her questions, but it would be because that’s his obligation as a teacher. Deep inside, he would surely prefer to keep talking with that friendly student; they seem quite close, since they even have nicknames for each other.

Even if a tiniest bit, she doesn’t want to become a hindrance for him.

She knows that these concerns are awfully ridiculous. If it were another teacher, she wouldn’t care at all. Most importantly, whether Kuro does consider her interruption a bother or not, she can’t read his thoughts anyway. Actually, he wouldn’t even care enough to feel such things; to him, it would simply be two students coming to see him at the same time.

Unfortunately, she can’t help herself when it comes to Kuro. She keeps reverting to the lonely coward she was before she met Wataru. The time when she had to get used to people calling her a nuisance.

“Itsuki?”

Shu jolts and whirls back. Kuro is looking at her from the doorway, holding a marker; he must have seen her while writing something on the whiteboard.

“Are you here to talk to me?”

Her heartbeats soar. She opens and closes her lips, not knowing what to say after all the foolish fretting.

“Yes, but I—"

“Come in, then!” He chuckles. “Why are you standing there?”

His carefree words make her worries seem even more needless. Embarrassed, Shu nods with a flushed face and stiffly walks inside.

“So, what can I help you with?” Kuro asks.

“Sena and I had some questions about the literary analysis project,” she murmurs.

“Sure. What are they?”

While Shu momentarily searches the notes in her phone for the list of questions, she hears the boy continue to speak with Kuro.

“Chief, when are you gonna visit us again? I think I’ve improved a lot, you know. I wanna show you how much I’ve trained!”

“I’m not sure, Tetsu. I’m not a coach of the Karate team anymore, so I don’t know if it’s appropriate for an outsider to visit so often. You should also stop calling me ‘Chief.’”

“Don’t call yourself an outsider, Chief! You’re still a part of our team! To be honest, I wish you’d come back and be our coach again.”

“Thanks for thinking that way, but I’m a little busy these days. I’m in charge of more classes now.”

 _Coach? Karate team?_ Shu is taken aback by the new information as she opens up the list of questions. She had no idea he used to work as a coach as well. Now that she recalls, he sometimes wore a varsity jacket on casual Fridays. Maybe her brother knows more about this; she should ask him about it as soon as she returns home.

Tetora, to whom Kuro calls Tetsu, furrows his brows in disappointment.

“Then can’t you teach fewer classes like last year? There’re a lot of other English teachers!”

Kuro laughs, shaking his head.

“I can’t. It’s my responsibility.” Meeting Shu’s secretly admiring gaze, he gestures at her in a pleasant banter. “And I wouldn’t be having her as my student then.”

The girl's eyes widen. It is a joke. And yet, its gentleness erases all the previous doubts about herself. She rolls her eyes and scoffs quietly.

_Really, what an idiot I am._

“All right. Are you ready, Itsuki?”

Kuro asks, his smile as warm as her heart, and Shu nods, confidently facing her teacher.


End file.
